Obama Fills Out FCC at Key Time

11/07/2011 12:01 AM Eastern

By: By John Eggerton

Washington — President Obama has nominated DemocratJessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai to jointhe Federal Communications Commission, signaling thatthe White House wants to try and make sure the agencyis not reduced to a trio of commissioners when MichaelCopps exits at the end of the year.

Rosenworcel, the Senate Commerce Committee’s seniorcommunications counsel, and Pai, a former top FCCadviser, had been the leading candidates for two emptyFCC seats, one vacated by Republican Meredith AttwellBaker earlier this year and another that will be vacatedby the departure of Copps, aDemocrat.

Filling one Republican vacancyand one Democraticvacancy-to-be won’t changethe balance of the commission,which will go from a 3-1Democratic majority to a 3-2majority. But with broadbandadoption and deployment asnational priorities, a decisionnot to act on what couldhave been two empty chairsby year-end might have sentthe wrong signal about thepriority of having a full complementof commissioners todeal with that issue.

BIG DEAL PENDING

It could also allow the newFCC members to get up to speed on the vetting of themerger of wireless providers AT&T and T-Mobile USA,which also has implications for wireless broadband buildouts.

Rosenworcel and Pai should have a short learningcurve.

Rosenworcel will be succeeding her old boss. She wasa legal adviser on competition and Universal ServiceFund reform and then senior legal adviser to Copps beforeleaving the FCC in March 2007, to join the powerfulSenate Commerce Committee as a top communicationsaide to Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.).

Before advising Copps, she was an FCC staffer, havingserved as legal counsel to the bureau chief of the CommonCarrier bureau, so she is well versed in the broadbandand USF reform issues the FCC is currently focusedon.

“Her experience here, combined with her current congressionalwork, give her a perspective on telecom andmedia issues both wide and deep,” Copps said. “Her dedication,intelligence, and practical good judgment makeher an ideal choice for commissioner.”

Before joining FCC staff in 1999, Rosenworcel was withlaw firm Drinker Biddle. She is a 1997 graduate of New YorkUniversity Law School.

Pai joined law firm Jenner & Block in April 2011 from theFCC where, since 2007, he had been deputy general counsel,associate general counsel and special adviser to thegeneral counsel. FCC general counsel Austin Schlick saidhe was unable to comment for this story.

Before joining the FCC in 2007 under then-chairmanKevin Martin, Pai’s resume included deputy chief counselto the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee onAdministrative Oversight and the Courts (2003-2004) andsenior counsel in the Justice Department’s Office of LegalPolicy.

Between 2005 and 2007, Pai was chief counsel to theSenate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution,Civil Rights and Property Rights, where heserved as lead counsel on Supreme Court nominations.He was associate general counsel at Verizon Communicationsfrom 2001 to 2003.

‘SHEET-ROCK’ PROVENANCE

His Jenner & Block bio touts his victory over the cableindustry in NCTA vs. the FCC, the so-called “Sheetrock”inside-wiring case, in which the court upheldthe FCC’s decision that cable companies must providecompetitive service providers with alternative accesspoints to multichannel and broadband wiring insideapartments, condos and other multipledwelling units and office buildingswhen the wires are behind sheet-rockwalls.

Pai said he could not comment on hisnomination, but did confirm that his biodid refer to the “Sheetrock” case.

So, should cable operators worryabout the return of an FCC Republicanakin to former chairman Kevin Martin— one who’ll wind up bashing the industry?No, said one veteran cable attorney,who pointed out that Jenner &Block has a number of cable clients atthe FCC — Cablevision Systems andCharter Communications among them— and added he did not think Pai was“at all anti-cable.”

Pai was a candidate for the Republicanseat in 2009 that ultimately went toBaker. Her exit last summer for Comcast— she actually didn’t join the company until last month— opened the door for Pai once again.

As the picks of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.) and Rockefeller, the pair had been expectedto be paired and submittted for Senate consideration bythe end of the year.

That confirmation is expected to go relatively smoothly,with a hearing expected within the next several weeks.“Chairman Rockefeller is well aware of the importance offilling these key seats at the FCC and will schedule a hearingfor the nominees as soon as possible,” said a committeeaide on background.

In a custom that began during the Clinton administration,the president typically accepts the recommendationsof leading Democratic and Republican legislators, in thiscase the chair of the Commerce Committee, which overseesthe FCC, and the Senate minority leader.

“I am confident that these outstanding men and womenwill greatly serve the American people in their new roles andI look forward to working with them in the months and yearsahead,” Obama said in announcing the nominations.